King Island
King Island (sometimes referred to as King's Island, Royal Island or even just Foggy Island) is a large, lightly occupied island in the Bass Strait. Before the war, nearly 2000 people called King Island their home, but two hundred years of diseases and conflict wiped this population out. In the modern day, the island is lightly occupied by Fisher Families and Whalers. History King Island has a long and storied history, with use by humans being traced back to the Aboriginal Migration. Corpses and fossils found on the show it was briefly occupied by Aboriginal people when the Bass Strait was a land bridge between Tasmania and Victoria. In the millennia since, it was occupied lightly by Aboriginal people, who hunted wallabies on the island. European settlement of the island began in the 1880s when the island was opened for grazing. The town of Currie soon appeared on the island as well as the post office. In 1936, a telephone cable was built running across the Bass Strait via King Island. In the 2000s, King Island's economy was based entirely around cattle grazing. The island continued to function as a conduit for telephone and telegram communications across the Bass Strait but the primary focus of the island's inhabitants stayed with the cattle stations. In the north of the Island, the construction of the King Island Military Base and its occupation by the United States Armed Forces slightly changed the island's dynamics but not enough to break it out of its retro-futuristic rural isolation. End of Days When the Great War struck, it hit King Island almost as hard as Melbourne's CBD. Chinese spies had heard news of the American experimentation at the Military Base and targeted the facility heavily with its submarines. Currie itself remained untouched but the subsequent fallout took many lives. With no contact with the rest of the world, the citizens of King Island began to establish their post-apocalyptic life. With a strong backbone in cattle grazing, the population of King Island were set for the long haul. Small fishing operations appeared, Currie was lightly fortified against mutants and a new mayor was even elected from a returned war veteran. King Island rode the wave through to the apocalypse easily. This peace couldn't last in the unstable Post-Apocalyptic world. On March 1, 2089, the MS Morbus, an American freighter out of LA, drifted into the harbour at Currie. On investigation by the town, the ship's crew was found dead. A member had been infected by the New Plague before leaving LA. The plague quickly spread around King Island, with nearly guaranteed death for any inflicted. Within weeks, caravaneers had spread the plague to every corner of the island. Currie was abandoned. Almost all of the population was dead. While some escaped to the centre of the island, the rest of the population simply died. Death Island When the Hobson Bay Trading Company sent scouts out to King Island in 2143, the found little more than crumbling ruins, dingos running wild in streets and large amounts of radiation pumping out of the King Island Military Base. Without hosts, the plague had mainly died out but other creatures had made their home in the island. Mirelurks, Anglers, Hermit Crabs and other problematic critters cropped up all over the island, scaring off traders. No one settled on King Island for years. King Island became a mythic place for the next few decades. While King Island became infamous around the Bass Strait as a ghostly place, for the Fishers it took on a massive amount of spiritual significance, especially around the south-east of the island. Dozens of Fisher Families would dock their ships, undergo rituals, leave sacrifices or otherwise pay homage to their gods. King Island was the church of the Fishers. This religious significance helped lower the reputation of King Island further. Hobson Bay traders brought tales back to Williamstown of a fog-coated island, full of plague victims, disembowelled bodies and strange religious icons. The island became some sort of geographic embodiment of the Boogey Man. This impression was in no way weakened by the very real threat posed by the various monsters found around the island. In 2231 alone, five merchant ships were brought down by Giant Jigglers. By the 2260s, this idea had been weakened by the settlement of Whaler's Wash in the north, but King Island in 2287 is still an untamed and unknown wilderness. In the interior, small groups of Lurkers still remain, living a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. The island is dark, irradiated and dangerous place, but just a little less than in previous years. Layout King Island is a large island, taking up approximately 1100km^2 of the Bass Strait. The island is divided into a few rough regions: *The North, where the King Island Military Base and Whaler's Wash are found *The South-East, largely uninhabited by anything other than Mirelurks *The South-West, home to a few religious icons for Fisher Families and Long's Homestead *Central King Island, home to the last vestiges of the Pre-War population Hazards Since the war, many dangers have appeared around King Island. Mirelurks, Anglers, Hermit Crabs and other aquatic dangers have all become common around the island's coastline. Dingos arrived on the island in the 2120s and have since become an incredibly common and incredibly dangerous predator. Pre-War settlements still hold the risk of releasing the New Plague again, though the lack of any good salvage in the area makes this unlikely. Due to the King Island Military Base, radiation is still incredibly dangerous, especially around the north. Inhabitants As of 2287, King Island is lightly inhabited, primarily around the northern stretches. Approximately 300 human beings call the Island home, primarily found in Whaler's Wash. The radiation from the King Island Military Base has spread around much of the north-west of the island and the rampant growth of the various monsters have just limited the growth of settlements even more. This hasn't stopped all settlement of the island, with Long's Homestead and Posie's Glow being important sites south of Whaler's Wash. In the island's interior, the eagled-eyed explorer can still see some Lurkers, though this is growing rarer and rarer as the years go on. Category:Tasmania Category:Places